Hide and Seek
by Sakura Ocean
Summary: Ikuto had always been good at Hide and Seek. If only he wasn't hiding from her. Ikuto/Souko centric.


**Hiya! Sorry I haven't posted anything in ages. I've had S3 exams and I finished the last one today. So hopefully I will be able to write a lot more. **

**Anyway, here is a oneshot I came up with a few weeks ago. It was actually based on a dream I had about Souko and Ikuto but I altered a few things (since it was a dream and some pretty weird stuff happened in that dream). It's set before the Death Rebel incident. From my point of view, this is probably the most angst piece I've written but I quite like it and I hope you will too.**

**So I hope you enjoy and I do not own Shugo Chara.

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**Hide and Seek**

_Panic spread throughout your body when you realized he wasn't here. He wasn't taking a nap on the couch, he wasn't eating taiyaki in the kitchen, he wasn't gazing longingly at Aruto's violin in your bedroom and he wasn't in Utau's bedroom reading her manga. He was nowhere to be found. You had looked everywhere for him, everywhere apart from-_

_His bedroom._

_You shut Utau's bedroom door before making your way to Ikuto's bedroom. You lightly chap the door and call:_

"_Ikuto? Are you in there?" _

_Silence._

_The panic increases as your hands tremble as they turn the doorknob; slowly opening the door. _

_The room was filled with toys and clothes that had been scattered carelessly on the floor, but that could wait. You had to find your son. _

_That's when it catches your attention. The duvet dangling off the bed. It perfectly covered the gap between the bed and the floor. You smile as you kneel on the ground, you small hands grasping the edge of the duvet._

"_Found you!" you cry triumphantly as you pull the covers away._

_He wasn't there. _

_You sigh before standing up. Perhaps he was in the garden. You made you way towards the door before stopping. Did you just hear a giggle?_

_Your indigo eyes lock onto the wooden door opposite your son's bed. The closet. How could you have been so stupid? Now that you looked closer, the door was slightly open. You let out a giggle yourself before calling:_

"_Oh where, oh where could Ikuto be? I cannot find him anywhere?" you grin when you heard another giggle before continuing, "It's a shame. I though he would've really liked that last piece of chocolate taiyaki. But as he's not here I shall eat it myself." you approach the closet door silently before making one last comment. "At least, not before going to the amusement park and going on all the rides. I wonder which one I shall go on first?" You grasp the brass handle lightly before pulling open the closet. _

_Ikuto's indigo eyes, the same shade as yours, stare back at you in disbelief. You giggle lightly before picking your five-year old son out of the closet. His laughter starts to fill the room and you couldn't help but laugh along with him. _

_You knew then that he would always be good at hide and seek.

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That was a long time ago. Twelve years. He's seventeen, nearly an adult. It's only you and him now. Aruto left over seven years ago and Utau moved out, though you know where she lives, even if she doesn't try and contact you.

You remarried. At least, that's what Kazuomi thinks. It's been a few years and you still haven't signed the marriage contract. But no-one needs to know that. Not yet. Not now.

But he should. He should know. You know he's suffering. Being made to do stuff that he would never want to do but you didn't know what. You were never told anything. You never asked. You were weak willed.

You need to talk to him. He was your son. How long had it been since you had a proper conversation with him? How long had it been since you said a simple "good morning" to him?

Too long.

You trembled slightly as your hand knocked the door.

"Ikuto-san?" Pathetic. You called your son with such an distant honorific, like he was a stranger. He almost was. But you had to though. You had to protect him, even if it wasn't working out the way you had planned at the moment. "Are you there?" you call. Biting your lip, you open the door with shaking hands.

He wasn't there. He never was. It was obvious he didn't want to see you. He was hiding from you. Just like all those years ago, only he wasn't doing it for laughs. He was doing it because he didn't know who you were anymore. You couldn't blame him, you didn't even know who you were anymore. He didn't want to see you.

And yet you walk towards the closet, in the vain hope that the same five year old boy would be there.

But he never was.

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**Review!**


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